1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated warehouse including multiple carriers and a method for controlling an automated warehouse.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known automated warehouses in which an article is automatically transferred to or from a housing shelf (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 5103714). An automated warehouse of this type includes an outside panel including multiple openable/closable doors, housing shelves arranged vertically and horizontally inside the outside panel, and carriers that travel on a track installed on the floor along the housing shelves and that each include a transfer device which accesses one of the housing shelves to transfer an article. In this automated warehouse, the carriers and the like are operating in the internal space of the outside panel. For this reason, to ensure safety, the automated warehouse uses a technique of, when one of the openable/closable doors is opened, forcefully stopping the operation of the carriers, as an interlock.
According to Japanese Patent No. 5103714, if one of two carriers operating on the track is maintained, the other carrier operates in a region other than a region corresponding to the carrier to be maintained, thereby suppressing a reduction in the operating rate of the automated warehouse. However, this automated warehouse has a problem that if the carrier being maintained is holding an article and/or if an article is housed in a housing shelf corresponding to the carrier being maintained, the other carrier cannot access or transfer this article.